


Helicopter Dads

by XtaticPearl



Series: The Parker-Stark-Rhodes-Hogan-Potts-Danvers Family [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Found Families, Gen, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Protective Happy, Protective Rhodey, Protective Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 20:51:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9090244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XtaticPearl/pseuds/XtaticPearl
Summary: At first Peter thought Tony, Rhodey and Happy were cool badasses. Then they turned into overprotective dad figures and Peter is going to explode.





	

Peter woke up to the sound of a clattering pan. His thought process was a general mess during the first hour of mornings so it wasn’t unusual for him to think in a strange order.

_Dalek! Ned? Bed..Sun no…Aunt May? Liz…….No Liz….Not my bed…WHERE AM I?_

“Hnnngrh” he said eloquently into his pillow and then mouthed at it for a minute because it was softer than usual.

_Better thread count…_

_Thread count?_

_…WHAT THE -_

“I crashed over at Tony Stark’s house!!” he yelped and sprang up on the bed, blinking slowly to adjust his eyes for a minute. Yep, different bed, different room, oh there it is, Captain America’s shield.

Hoooo boy.

“Aunt May’s gonna kill me,” he groaned and smashed his face into his hands when he remembered how he had landed here.

“Not a good after-birthday, huh?” he heard an amused voice and looked up to see James Rhodes leaning against the door, arms crossed in front of his chest and eyeing Peter with a small smirk.

“Is it possible that somebody could wipe my mind? Like just the past 24 hours?” he mumbled and rubbed his forehead when Rhodes chuckled.

“Kid, you’re not even hungover. Stop being dramatic,” Rhodes clucked his tongue and walked in, coming to stand near Peter, “Now get up, we don’t have all day.”

“But it’s Sunday?” Peter tried to get out of it and Rhodey simply rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, sure, like your Aunt’s gonna take an off from whooping your ass. Up you go brainiac.”

“It was my birthday,” Peter grumbled even as he tripped out of bed and swayed for a second with the sheets getting caught before sighing, “Why does that excuse never work?”

“Ask your Mr. Stark,” Rhodey snorted, “It’s not been working for him for forty years.”

Peter couldn’t get out of the inevitable evisceration but it did not mean that he had to go silently. He made it a point to keep whining throughout the way from the guest bedroom to the common floor, where he heard his Aunt’s voice along with Mr. Stark’s.

“- wasn’t all that bad actually,” Tony was saying and then looked up to see Peter come in with Rhodey, shooting Peter an amused half-grin, “Here he is, your package, safe and sound.”

“Hi Aunt May,” Peter waved hesitantly and winced a bit when she simply stared at him deadpanned. Immediate yelling would be so much better than accumulated ones.

“Hi, Pete,” she said and Peter saw Tony bite back a grin, narrowing his eyes at the genius, “Interesting day yesterday, huh?”

“Not really?” the teenager shrugged and played with the hem of his hoodie before consciously stopping that, “So…can we go now?”

“It’s a Sunday, Peter,” Rhodey quipped from his side and Peter shot him a death star but the man simply grinned, “No hurry.”

“Well, maybe we should let you all get back to -” May got up but Tony simply raised his palm and got up with her.

“Why don’t you guys join us for breakfast?” he asked and Peter could _see_  the damn twinkle of mischief in the man’s eyes, “Viz made special pancakes. Guy’s been taking classes.”

“Thankfully,” Rhodey muttered and Tony shared a look with him before looking at May.

Peter tried making desperate gestures at his aunt but she simply shrugged and agreed.

He really hated Sundays.

******

“So,” Tony cleared his throat and Peter looked up from the bag he was packing to see the man awkwardly hovering behind him.

“Uh, you need something?” he asked in an unsure voice and Tony blinked before shaking his head.

“Nah, not really”

Peter nodded to himself and went back to packing his bag, letting the awkward silence stretch for a bit before he bit his lip and breathed out.

“Listen, Mr. Stark, I -” he paused, trying to find the right words, “Thanks, you know, for coming yesterday.”

“Yes, well,” Tony shrugged, “It’s not often you get a call to rendezvous at a dumpster. Interesting experience.”

“Yeah,” Peter winced and rubbed the back of his neck, “I just, um, I guess I wasn’t thinking all that much when I, um.”

“Kid?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s fine,” Tony said before a hint of a smirk appeared, “But try to maybe not test your digestive abilities when you have to swing your way back. Patterns of vomit aren’t really the kind of road art people like.”

“Urgh” Peter groaned and ran a hand over his face, ignoring Tony’s chuckles.

Peter didn’t know what Tony had told Aunt May about his bad birthday experience but thankfully she didn’t give him a lecture worse than Thanksgiving, so he figured that the billionaire had left out certain parts.

That was…kind of cool.

It happened again when Vulture attacked the dockyard and Peter got slammed a bit too hard. One minute he was thinking that his strength might not be enough, and the next minute he saw a repulsor blast whooshing past him, straight into Vulture’s gut.

“I had it under control,” Peter informed Tony as he got into Happy’s car, wincing only slightly over his back bruises.

“Sure, kid,” Tony said and went back to his phone. Happy shared a look with Peter in the rear-view mirror but didn’t say anything.

Peter wished he had understood that it would only get worse.

At first it was only Tony who kept a check on him. And then there was Happy.

“I’m fine, oh God!” Peter threw his hands up as he hustled Happy away from the parking lot where a few jocks were standing, jeering at him, “Seriously, Happy, I don’t need a ride. I’m fine.”

“You’ve got upgrades,” Happy grunted but his eyes were narrowed over Peter’s shoulder at the jocks.

The upgrades, as it turned out, were not just for his uniform. Peter tried to remove the honing bug from his new StarkPhone but Tony had put it in a way that it would destroy the phone if he tried it.

“You cannot threaten high school kids!” Peter marched into the Compound living room, a notepad clutched in one hand, “Seriously, what the hell!”

“Who threatened whom?” Rhodey asked from the couch, raising an eyebrow at the teen.

“Happy. My school’s kids,” Peter said and pointed at Happy when he walked in, “No, you, stop. This cannot continue.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Happy shrugged without concern and Rhodey looked between the both of them.

“What’s happening?”

“He threatened -”

“I just stood there,” Happy retorted, “Not my fault if the’re wimp bullies.”

“Bullies?” Rhodey’s voice sharpened and Peter opened his mouth to make an excuse but Happy spoke over him.

“Ask him where he got the bruises last Friday from?” Happy crossed his arms and eyed Peter, “Answer’s not a street criminal. Shockingly.”

“You don’t bruise easy,” Rhodey looked at Peter who simply shrugged.

“Not the point,” he said and looked back at Happy, “Point is that you need to stop coming to my school wearing your threatening resting face and in your power car and stuff.”

“I’m just -”

“Sure, kid,” Rhodey cut Happy short and smiled placidly at Peter, “Happy won’t come over again.”

Peter eyed Rhodey cautiously but nodded and left it at that.

He should have been more cautious.

“OH COME ON!”

The War Machine suit waved at the gathering crowd from the sky and Peter saw his bullies swallow hard when the armor hovered down close to them.

“See you later, Parker!” Rhodey called out before he flew back home and Peter turned red when everyone stared at him with varied levels of awe.

“THAT’S IT!” Peter shouted and all three men stilled, “Citizens of Queens, scram. Yeah, you guys, shoo. You three, wait right here. We’re gonna talk.”

“Actually, I have this really important meeting,” Tony said over the comm.

“And I have to go upgrade my suit,” Rhodey hedged.

“I think I had a date with Pepper,” Happy lowered his gun and tried to slink back to the car but Peter swung down and stood in front of him.

“Don’t even think about it, Hogy-Pogy,” Peter narrowed his mask’s eyes and poked the man in the chest, “We’re talking.”

The talk was more of an incomprehensible argument, where everyone was talking and Happy was just repeating ‘I didn’t do anything!’.

“I’m Spiderman, goddammit!” Peter said in frustration.

“Language!” All three men chided unanimously before blinking and looking at each other a bit sheepishly.

“I’m going home,” Peter grumbled and cast out his web before any of them could stop him. 

He was not moping that night, watching the latest fight videos on YouTube in bed when he heard a knock on his door and looked up to see Aunt May peeking in.

“Busy?” she asked and Peter grunted non-noncommittally, watching the video as she came in and sat on the bed.

“So, I got an interesting call from Tony Stark,” May commented and Peter looked up with narrowed eyes.

“I swear to God if they’re still -”

“He wanted me to tell you that they’re sorry,” she cut him short smoothly and Peter gaped, “Yeah, same reaction.”

“Huh,” Peter huffed and shrugged in an attempt to be casual, “Well, okay.”

May hummed and stared at Peter till he looked up.

“What?”

“Just thinking,” she said with a shrug, “Remember that day when I came to pick you up after your birthday?”

_Yeah, Peter remembered THAT really well._

“I was super disappointed with you that day,” she went on and Peter grimaced, “I mean, I get that you’d broken up and that sucked but…it was dangerous. Underage drinking and then swinging around? It wasn’t your best idea.”

“I know” Peter groused.

“No, you don’t,” May said and Peter looked up to see her looking out the window, “You’ve seen it on TV and stuff, yes, but…reality isn’t always that glamorous. In reality, there’s not always a good guy who gives you water and puts you to sleep.”

“Aunt May -”

“I was ready to yell at you that day,” she continued quietly, “You know why I didn’t?”

When Peter remained silent she looked at him with a small smile.

“Because of what Tony Stark said.”

“What?” Peter blinked, “He vouched for me?”

“Not vouch, but…He said,” May shook her head, “He said that he learnt from his mistakes. And that you were a good student too.”

“Pete,” May placed a hand over his, “I wasn’t all that keen at first about you roaming around in your suit, playing with superheroes. It wasn’t a safe life, according to me. But…it is what it is. I’m proud of you, whatever you do. But being proud does not mean that I’m not concerned about you. I’m your Aunt. It’s my choice to be concerned about you.”

“I know,” Peter grumbled but sighed, “But Tony and Happy and Rhodes are just -”

“Being Uncles you didn’t expect?” May quipped and laughed at the face Peter made, “Buddy, you don’t get everything in life. But sometimes when you get more than you expected, it feels weird. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”

“I just want them to trust me,” he muttered and looked up when May raised his chin.

“What makes you think they don’t?” she asked with a small grin, “You really think they’d help you out with everything, including your missions, if they didn’t trust you? Helping doesn’t mean they don’t think you can do it alone, Pete. It just means that they don’t want you to be alone. Kind of a good thing.”

“Helicopters,” Peter muttered but chuckled when May laughed at it.

For a long part of his life, Peter had the hovering trio on his ass, acting as though they were subtle but not being subtle at all. He had them at his graduation, bickering with other kids. He had them at his first legal drinking binge-fest’s aftermath, looking grim but not judging. He had them at the aftermath of the first death of a friend he had caused, staying silent but being there. He had them at the first patent of his discovery, acting smug like they were his dads. He had them at the first confrontation with his biggest enemy, following _his_  orders without question.

He had them till they needed him.

And then he reciprocated for all the times they had been there for him.

“Oh GOD, why?” Tony groaned and eyed the seventy candles on the cake in front of him.

“Shut up and blow, gramps,” Peter nudged his shoulder and snickered with an older looking Rhodey who stood beside his wife, Captain Marvel.

“Come on, boss, make it look good,” Happy commented from behind the camera and Tony glared at them but sighed when he wasn’t excused the extravaganza.

“Hey, uh, it was a nice party,” Tony said when the crowd was dwindling and Peter was picking up his fifth plate of cake, sneaking another one for Michelle, “So…thanks.”

Peter smirked with a mouthful of cake and patted the shoulder of the man who had been a family he had chosen.

“Learnt from the best, Mr. Stark,” he said, “Now, come on, I think Captain Marvel and War Machine are gonna have an arm-wrestling contest and I wanna watch Rhodey lose pathetically.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was a birthday fic for Frost <3  
> Feedback please!


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